Publishers

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Leviathan Stirs Netflix is testing promo ads between episodes with some European users. Netflix subscribers in the UK started seeing unskippable units suggesting other shows they might like, which bubbled up on Reddit and were first reported by Cord Cutters News. Netflix already runs […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. Today’s column is by Paul Bannister, co-founder and executive vice president at CafeMedia. It’s unquestionable that brands need to use brand safety platforms to ensure their ads run in safe and appropriate environments. While these platforms were developed with positive intent, they also created […]

Just a few years ago, Roku focused on getting devices into as many households as possible. But at a certain point, Roku realized it had to do more to innovate and stay relevant in the over-the-top (OTT) battleground for ad dollars. Since then Roku has become an advertising titan. In its Q2 earnings call last […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Retired, But Not Resting Justice Department appeal or not, AT&T is full steam ahead with its advertising platform plans. AT&T’s advertising and analytics group, run by Brian Lesser, officially closed its acquisition of AppNexus on Wednesday. Brian O’Kelley, co-founder and CEO of AppNexus, will […]

Meredith will offload its 60% equity interest in ad platform business Viant, the company confirmed on its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call on Friday. It expects the sale to be finalized early in its coming fiscal year. Time Inc. bought Viant in 2016 for $87 million, and the purchase gave an inorganic boost to the publisher’s […]

Tech and publishing are coming together. Uzabase completed its acquisition of Quartz on July 31 and will pay between $75 million and $110 million, depending on this year’s performance. But what does it mean for a Bloomberg-like intelligence platform to join forces with a global business publisher? The two companies concede that they’re still figuring […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Slow Death What happened to the cable bundle? While the reason people are dropping their cable subscriptions is obvious (they’re expensive, relative to streaming options), what’s less obvious is how the cord-cutting trend started, Bloomberg reports. Many blame Netflix, because talent and shareholders looking […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Subs Up, Ads Down Digital ad revenue at The New York Times has declined 7.5% in Q2 from the year before. The paper said its “Trump Bump” last year inflated results, and it accounts for the decline in ad revenue. Readership grew, however, and […]

Roku’s platform business, which encompasses advertising and subscription revenue, grew 96% in Q2 to $90 million. Roku’s ad business now makes up two-thirds of platform revenue, Scott Rosenberg, VP of advertising and audience development, said Wednesday during the company’s Q2 earnings call. Rosenberg didn’t break out a figure for ad revenue but said a majority […]

Disney missed its earnings expectations on Tuesday by a smidgen, causing its stock to dip about 1% in after-hours trading. But you can’t keep a good mouse down. Analysts expected $1.95 per share on revenue of $15.4 billion in the fiscal third quarter. Instead, Disney posted $1.87 per share on $15.2 billion in revenue – not […]

Future PLC has agreed to buy the consumer division of Purch for $132 million. The July acquisition brings together Purch properties Tom’s Guide, Tom’s Hardware and Top Ten Reviews with Future PLC’s tech vertical titles, including PC Gamer and TechRadar. Future PLC’s 100-plus brands also serve non-tech niches like music and photography. The two companies […]

Google is going full-court press on universal app campaigns (UAC) through a partnership with Unity Technologies, a company that makes development tools for game creators. Starting Thursday, Unity’s more than 10 million developers have access to advertiser demand from AdMob via a direct integration. It’s the first partnership of this nature between Google and a […]

Rubicon Project beat its Q2 revenue expectations, sending the stock up 15% in after-hours trading Wednesday. Rubicon Project is still in the middle of steering a huge ship out of danger: It’s burning cash faster than it can increase ad spend on its platform, the result of cutting buyer fees from the platform in November. […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community.  Today’s column is written by Michael Lehman, vice president of supply at TripleLift. The original promise of PMPs was impossibly compelling: Marry the high CPMs, large revenues and control of direct sales with the efficiency and data of programmatic […]

By Sarah Sluis, Ryan Joe, Allison Schiff, Alison Weissbrot and Rae Paoletta Programmatic is expanding, becoming a glossier way to transact and add value to both the buy and sell sides. “We are moving rapidly into a programmatic-first world,” said Sal Candela, president of enterprise partnerships at Omnicom. “There is a surge of quality inventory […]

“On TV And Video” is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Today’s column is written by Mike Rosen, executive vice president of advanced advertising and platform sales at NBCUniversal Media. It’s the rallying cry of today’s TV doomsdayers who believe that consumers want to avoid all advertising on TV: “Shut […]

“The Sell Sider” is a column written for the sell side of the digital media community.  Today’s column is written by Alessandro De Zanche, an independent audience strategy consultant.  Today’s increasingly enhanced privacy era requires a closer collaboration between media companies and their audiences, based on a true value exchange, trust and transparency. Users who […]

Comcast’s strategy has long been to invest in every area where customers get their entertainment or information, so that even if one line of business is affected by changing consumer preferences, another could benefit. Cord cutters, for instance, reduced Comcast’s video business but aided its broadband business. The following are items of interest gleaned from […]

This is a new podcast from AdExchanger. It will be available wherever you subscribe to podcasts.  In the wake of Facebook’s suspension of social listening tool Crimson Hexagon from its platform late last week, it’s easy to trace the reason for the crackdown to residual squeamishness from its Cambridge Analytica nightmare. In the latest episode […]

It’s safe to say the ad industry has a thing for trade orgs. On Wednesday, a new one – the Brand Safety Institute (BSI) – opened its doors with the mission of helping advertisers, agencies and publishers get smart about managing brand safety issues. The group was co-founded by Neal Thurman, who was also recently appointed director […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. WPP In A China Shop WPP is exploring selling 20% of WPP China, its agency subsidiary in the market, to the Chinese media triumvirate of Tencent, Alibaba and China Media Capital Holdings, reports Sky News. The discussions are in the early stages, but WPP […]

Disney is about to get its own happily ever after with Hulu. Comcast has dropped out of its bidding war for most of Fox’s assets, conceding it to Disney. Disney and Fox shareholders are expected to approve the deal on July 27, USA Today reported. Disney will also gain access to Fox’s Star India network […]

OTT audiences are increasing in volume and engagement, but the channel must still overcome issues related to content discovery, measurement and fill rates. At A&E Networks, OTT’s share of audience is up 150% compared with decreases in engagement across desktop and mobile. At Bloomberg, 30% of its OTT audiences watch for 30 minutes or more […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Claws Down The bidding war between Comcast and Disney for 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets has finally come to an end, with Comcast backing down after Disney’s $71.3 billion counterbid. Comcast will focus instead on beating Fox to acquire Sky, the British satellite TV […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. SaaSy Publisher Vox Media will license its digital publishing software Chorus to other publishers, The Wall Street Journal reports. Twenty media companies are in talks to license Chorus already, which allows publishers to create, monetize and distribute articles for a recurring fee. In the […]

Trusted Media Brands is continuing its turnaround and building a revenue team to take advantage of its digital audience growth. Over the past year, the company, formerly known as the Reader’s Digest Association, grew readership on RD.com 76% to 8.3 million unique visitors. Taste of Home’s audience grew 39% to 12.7 million unique visitors. Overall […]

Machine Zone’s (MZ) experiment with homegrown ad tech is over. The gaming company shuttered Cognant, an internal demand-side platform created in 2016 to help MZ’s media buying team plan, create, buy, optimize and measure marketing campaigns. MZ laid off the entire Cognant team in June, as well as around half of its in-house media buyers, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Zuck Abides Readers might be forgiven for thinking this has been a brutal year for Facebook, given the long string of scandals and investigations the company has faced. But in some important ways, Facebook is humming along as smoothly as ever, according to […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Outlook Hazy The fate of Hulu depends on the outcome of Comcast’s and Disney’s bidding war for 21st Century Fox. Whoever wins will own a majority stake in Hulu, and both companies have very different visions for the platform’s future. Comcast wants to invest […]

Header bidding-like tech is starting to pick up steam on mobile, but it’s still mostly SDK-based, which brings added latency along with the revenue bump. On Thursday, mobile monetization platform PubNative released a hybrid server-side/client-side header bidding tool to help publishers bring in more dough without messing up the UX. Dubbed HyBid, the solution allows […]